Clippers center Marcin Gortat, left, defends Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins during the first half of Friday’s game at Staples Center. Cousins had 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in 15 minutes before fouling out of his season debut. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Clippers center Marcin Gortat, left, defends Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins during the first half of Friday’s game at Staples Center. Cousins had 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in 15 minutes before fouling out of his season debut. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Golden State Warriors’ Kevin Durant, left; Draymond Green, second from left; Stephen Curry, third from left; DeMarcus Cousins, second from right; and Klay Thompson, right, walk on the court along with Los Angeles Clippers center Marcin Gortat, center, and guard Avery Bradley during the first half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins, center, reaches for a rebound along with Los Angeles Clippers center Marcin Gortat, left, and forward Tobias Harris during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. The Warriors won 112-94. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins, left, reaches in on Los Angeles Clippers center Boban Marjanovic during the second half of an NBA basketball game Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. The Warriors won 112-94. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins gestures after scoring during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. The Warriors won 112-94. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers yells at referees during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the Golden State Warriors on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. The Warriors won 112-94. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant waits during the second half of the team’s NBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019, in Los Angeles. The Warriors won 112-94. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

LOS ANGELES — Despite a game effort from the depleted Clippers, the Golden State Warriors are 1-0 in the DeMarcus Cousins era.

With all of Staples Center’s 19,068 seats filled, ESPN screening the game nationally and reporters from across the country having descended to bear witness to Boogie’s debut as a Golden State Warrior on Friday, the Clippers held the Warriors in check as long as they could before falling 112-94.

Cousins had 14 points in 15 minutes before fouling out and Golden State (32-14) pulled away in the fourth quarter for its seventh consecutive win. With a four-game trip looming, the Clippers (24-21) lost their season-worst fifth in a row, dropping to ninth in the Western Conference standings.

“I felt like a kid on Christmas,” said Cousins, who had been out since Jan. 26, 2018, when he ruptured his left Achilles tendon while playing for New Orleans. “It’s been a long journey. This is probably one of the best days of my life, just being out there on the floor again playing the game that I love.”

It wasn’t nearly as delightful a day for the Clippers. Tasked with facing the two-time defending champion Warriors, who were, terrifyingly, at full strength for the first time (at least until Cousins fouled out with 8:51 to play), the Clippers were substantially less than whole.

Shortly before the game came news that Lou Williams (18.7 points per game) was being held out with a sore hamstring that could keep him out for another couple of games, Coach Doc Rivers said. Then, with about four minutes left in the first quarter, Danilo Gallinari (19.4) left the game after taking a hit, his night ended prematurely by lower back spasms.

Yet, with Tobias Harris (28 points, nine rebounds) and rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (a career-high-tying 24 points, to go with five assists) keying the effort, the Clippers trailed only 51-50 at halftime and then fought back from a 14-point third-quarter deficit to reduce it to 81-72 entering the fourth.

But in the final quarter, the Warriors sank their teeth into an experimental lineup of Johnathan Motley, Jerome Robinson, Boban Marjanovic, Tyrone Wallace and Beverley, and Cousins immediately drained back-to-back 3-pointers to increase the lead to 87-72.

Another 3-pointer by Andre Iguodala and the lead abruptly was 18.

“It didn’t go well,” Rivers said of the lineup that started the final quarter. “But we had to give guys a blow, you know?”

The Warriors kept the Clippers at bay from then on, though it wasn’t quite the onslaught they’d produced in some of their recent victories.

Golden State steamrolled into Friday’s game having scored at least 142 points in three of its past four games, when it shot 52.6 percent from the field and 47.7 from 3-point range.

The Clippers, meanwhile, came in struggling defensively, having allowed 120 points per game in their previous four losses.

“First thing Pat said when he walked in the locker room was, ‘Hey guys, we followed the game plan!’ ” Rivers said. “He didn’t say it with those words, he used other words – but we did.”

For the Warriors, who shot 49.4 percent and collected 31 assists on Friday, Steph Curry finished with 28 points, Kevin Durant had 24 and Klay Thompson had 14. The Warriors shot just 9 for 37 from 3-point range on a night when Curry made only three from long range and Thompson missed all four of his 3-point attempts.

Cousins, who signed a one-year $5.3 million contract with the Warriors as a free agent last summer, shot 5 for 11 from the floor and added six rebounds and three assists.

“I think inserting Cuz in the lineup gave us some great energy,” said Durant, who has previously dealt with serious foot injuries. “I know that feeling coming back from injury. I was out for three months and I was like, ‘Man, this is so exciting.’ So a year, I’m excited for him as we move forward this season to feel like one of us again.”

For the Clippers (who shot 36.1 percent and finished with just 11 assists), no one beside Harris or Gilgeous-Alexander scored more than seven points.

Without Williams and Gallinari to help space the floor with their shooting, the Warriors’ defense effectively collapsed on Montrezl Harrell, holding him to four points, his second-lowest total this season.

“Listen, we didn’t have a lot of scoring out on the floor tonight,” Rivers said. “We made a lot of passes and guys got shots, but we just couldn’t make shots. With Lou not playing and Gal not playing, you’re probably going to struggle offensively a little bit.”

Mirjam Swanson covers the Clippers, the NBA and the LA Sparks for the Southern California News Group. Previously, she wrote about LeBron James and the rest of the Dream Team at the 2004 Olympics (where, yes, they took bronze), Tiger Woods winning the U.S. Open on one leg, and had a tour reporting on city government, education and the occasional bear in a backyard.

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